Spellbinding stars of India

England 325-5 India 326-8 India win by 2 wickets

England lost a breathtaking one-day final at Lord's yesterday. Or rather, India won it. Any side merit victory who successfully chase a target of 326 after falling to 146 for 5 with all their celebrated names gone. The tourists did precisely that.

They had three balls and two wickets to spare when the winning runs came from an overthrow. It gave them the NatWest Series but it was also a triumph which entered the realms of epic. That and the match itself. Only one team have chased more to win: Australia, who made 330 to defeat South Africa last April.

Those who presumed that for India this might have been just another one-day game on their non-stop world tour – only Bob Dylan plays more gigs – should have witnessed their delighted players cavort through the Long Room and on to the ground. The man in their sights was Mohammad Kaif, who made an unbeaten 87 from 75 balls. It was his sixth-wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh, the discovery, or rather the rediscovery, of the tournament, that turned the match on its head.

It is easy enough to say that England might have bowled better. So they might, but they were subjected to some unfettered batting. This was by no stretch of the imagination a case of England squandering their score, which was always formidable but never impregnable.

They will rue it, of course, nobody more than Marcus Trescothick, who scored his third one-day century and for the third time finished on the losing side, and the captain, Nasser Hussain, who registered his first and greeted it with some ill-becoming gestures. They could not, however, diminish a wonderful contest, another point in the learning curve of the one-day game where bat ruled over ball but ball was never quite out of the equation because the men wielding the willow were attempting so many outrageous deeds.

India's greatest player, Sachin Tendulkar, was making his way back to the dressing room when Kaif passed him to join Yuvraj. With a lustrous, fearless exhibition on a wonderful one-day pitch they shared a partnership of 121 from 101 balls, just five short of the Indian record. That put their side within sight of unlikely victory. England put the match back in the balance when first Yuvraj went for 69 from 63 balls to a moment of carelessness and then when Andrew Flintoff took two late wickets in an over.

England must have felt like placing one hand on the trophy after making 325 for 5, only the 10th occasion on which they have scored 300 in a one-dayer. It was another large partnership, this one of 185 for the second wicket, which shaped it. The innings were of contrasting types. Trescothick was wonderfully assertive, Hussain was never that.

As notable as the captain's first one-day century for England was, it was not as memorable as the antics which immediately followed it. A full house at the home of cricket stood to greet his efforts. Hussain responded not to them but to the inhabitants of the faraway space ship known as the Press Centre. He waved his bat in their direction and pointed to the digit on his shirt, which happens to correspond to his place in the batting order.

He declaimed, or rather snarled, three words, the second two of which were "number three", the first of which was an appropriately snarling adjective which did not look as though it was "lucky". It was Hussain's way of getting his own back in public on those – among them former England captains – who have said he does not have the assets necessary to hold down the No 3 position in the order. Hussain and England's coach, Duncan Fletcher, have always insisted, in so many words, that this view is tosh.

So Hussain at last made a hundred. Good for him. Nobody would begrudge him it. The innings of 115 contained 10 fours and came in a respectable 118 balls but it fell short of being a masterpiece. If it was to be hidden away and found in a storeroom in 40 years' time it would probably not fetch £50 million at auction.

Perhaps a century for Hussain at No 3 was inevitable; it is said that a hundred monkeys sitting before typewriters would eventually come up with the works of Shakespeare. Hussain's un-Shakespearean phrase as he finished the single which brought it up was not the type which the International Cricket Council had in mind when they said they were clamping down on industrial language.

The fact that Trescothick also reached three figures was a bad omen. On the previous two occasions he had made one-day hundreds, against Pakistan at Lord's last summer, and against India in Calcutta in January, England had lost.

Hussain must have stood at the other end from the left-handed opener and wished he could copy him. Trescothick's striking was smooth and unfussy while the captain was forever having to tie himself in knots to attack the ball.

Trescothick went blazing away to leg. He had faced only 109 balls and hit only nine boundaries, two of them sixes. This was not quite an innings to place in the category of his monumental hundred in Eden Gardens earlier this year. But his dismissive hitting is a wonderful sight.

India, who recently kicked their habit of losing finals by ending an unsuccessful streak of nine, began in a fever of excitement. Sourav Ganguly, with a previous highest score in the series of 43, whirled away almost dementedly. But there was purpose: a required rate of 6.52 runs an over. Hussain put down India's captain when they had reached 56, a damnably hard chance at short extra, low and well to his right. For a while it seemed the damage might be far worse than a mere dropped catch.

Hussain left the pitch for treatment. Had he suffered his annual broken finger? His prompt return indicated that all was well with his digits. That diagnosis did not apply to England. The Indian 100 was up after only 80 balls, 16 came off Ronnie Irani's first over, and the target was only round the next corner.

But one-day cricket has a habit of generating optical illusions. Suddenly Ganguly was gone, playing a daft heave, and not long after Virender Sehwag was beaten by the flight and bounce of Ashley Giles. When Dinesh Mongia followed, India were surely reliant on the genius of Sachin Tendulkar. But Giles got him as well, essaying something extravagant. There was no cause for premature celebration but every reason to believe that England were about to have their hands on the NatWest Series for the second time.

But India bat a long, long way down. Yuvraj and Kaif, who made his debut against England last winter, were always calm. England tried to remain so, which cannot have been easy.

It looked as if a wicket would never come. Then Yuvraj got in a tangle against Paul Collingwood. Still, India pressed until in the 47th over Flintoff bowled Harbhajan Singh and had Anil Kumble caught behind. India still needed 12, England still had hope. India got them. They deserved to.

Lord's Scoreboard

England won toss

England
M E Trescothick b Kumble 109
N V Knight b Zaheer Khan 14
N Hussain b Nehra 115
A Flintoff b Zaheer Khan 40
M P Vaughan c Mongia b Zaheer Khan 3
P D Collingwood not out 3
R C Irani not out 10
Extras (b2 lb16 w7 nb6) 31
Total (for 5, 50 overs) 325

Fall: 1-42 (Knight), 2-227 (Trescothick), 3-307 (Flintoff), 4-312 (Hussain), 4-312 (Vaughan),

Did not bat: A J Stewart, A F Giles A J Tudor, D Gough.

Bowling: Nehra 10-0-66-1 (nb3, w1) (6-0-36-0 4-0-30-1), Zaheer Khan 10-1-62-3 (nb1, w3) (6-1-31-1 4-0-31-2), Kumble 10-0-54-1 (2-0-13-0 4-0-22-0 4-0-19-1), Harbhajan Singh 10-0-53-0 (w3) (6-0-29-0 4-0-24-0), Ganguly 3-0-28-0 (nb2), Sehwag 4-0-26-0 (one spell each), Yuvraj Singh 3-0-18-0 (2-0-10-0 1-0-8-0).

Progress: 50 in 45 min, 57 balls. 15 overs score: 90-1. 100 in 78 min, 101 balls. 150 in 104 min, 143 balls. 200 in 131 min, 195 balls. 250 in 162 min, 247 balls. 300 in 188 min, 282 balls.

Trescothick 50: 68 min, 40 balls, 4 fours, 1 six. 100: 138 min, 89 balls,6 fours, 2 sixes

Hussain 50: 78 min, 66 balls, 4 fours. 100: 145 min, 118 balls, 7 fours.

India
V Sehwag b Giles 45
S C Ganguly b Tudor 60
D Mongia c Stewart b Irani 9
S R Tendulkar b Giles 14
R Dravid c Knight b Irani 5
Yuvraj Singh c Tudor b Collingwood 69
M Kaif not out 87
Harbhajan Singh b Flintoff 15
A Kumble c Stewart b Flintoff 0
Zaheer Khan not out 4
Extras (b3, lb8, w6, nb1) 18
Total (for 8, 49.3 overs) 326

Fall: 1-106 (Ganguly), 2-114 (Sehwag), 3-126 (Mongia), 4-132 (Dravid), 5-146 (Tendulkar), 6-267 (Yuvraj Singh), 7-314 (Harbhajan Singh), 8-314 (Kumble).

Did not bat: A Nehra.

Bowling: Gough 10-1-63-0 (w3) (6-1-29-0 2-0-14-0 2-0-20-0), Tudor 9-0-62-1 (nb1, w1) (4-0-29-0 1-0-6-1 3-0-20-0 1-0-7-0), Flintoff 7.3-0-55-2 (w2) (3-0-26-0 2-0-19-0 2.3-0-10-2), Irani 10-0-64-2 (1-0-16-0 7-0-32-2 2-0-16-0), Giles 10-0-47-2, Collingwood 3-0-24-1 (one spell each).

Progress: 50 in 33 min, 50 balls. 100 in 62 min, 80 balls. 15 overs score: 108-1. 150 in 113 min, 150 balls. 200 in 142 min, 205 balls. 250 in 171 min, 238 balls. 300 in 199 min, 275 balls.

Ganguly 50: 51 min, 35 balls, 9 fours, 1 six.

Yuvraj Singh 50: 64 min, 53 balls, 6 fours, 1 six.

Kaif 50: 69 min, 50 balls, 3 fours, 1 six.

Result: India won by two wickets.

Man of the match: M Kaif. Player of the series: M E Trescothick.

Umpires: S A Bucknor, D R Shepherd. Replay umpire: P Willey. Match referee: M J Procter.